The present invention relates to an account management system for Internet commerce applications and, more particularly, to a system for qualifying over the Internet a participant in a transaction.
An unfortunate result of the increasing market in electronic commerce over the Internet is the increasing occurrences of fraud and/or abuse. Such abuse has been particularly evident on Internet auction sites, of which there are over 1,000 currently operating today. A majority of the abuse has been either individuals bidding on items for sale without the intention of ever taking possession of the items or individuals who intentionally bid on items with the intention of taking possession of the items without paying for them.
It would thus be desirable to provide an intermediary or third-party participant that can provide an Internet account/credit management system to eliminate the potential for fraud or abuse. Such a system should be able to determine with some certainty that the individual who has registered on the site has funds available, which can be reserved as a deposit for the item or to cover the cost of the item if the bidder submits a winning bid. It would also be desirable for the system to enable funds to be transferred between bidder and seller accounts at settlement.
Another problem that has arisen from the increased commerce over the Internet is vendor inability to qualify or validate customer funds for e-commerce transactions. Customers such as individuals or businesses or the like may enter transactions without sufficient funds or credit, resulting in a failed transaction. Moreover, even customers with apparently sufficient credit may enter transactions knowing that the a deposit or purchase amount of available funds/credit is already encumbered.
It would thus be desirable to provide an intermediary or third-party participant that can provide an Internet account/credit management system that can qualify transaction participants or verify that sufficient funds are available and unencumbered to complete the transaction.